


in each place and forever

by notaqueenaqueer



Category: Pretty Little Liars, Scream (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Anti-Ezria - Freeform, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-06 07:16:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14051766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notaqueenaqueer/pseuds/notaqueenaqueer
Summary: Fifteen years after the birth of the twins, Emily and Paige's worlds collide once more.





	in each place and forever

**Author's Note:**

> So the ending of Pretty Little Liars was kinda awful? I know a lot of us are a bit bummed by the way it turned out, so I guess this is my way of bringing closure to this literal shitshow.
> 
> This is going to be mainly Emison and Paily, with some Haleb thrown in for good measure. Definitely no Ezria though because I am not here for that nonsense.

"Promise me, Ali," Emily whispers to her new wife. "No more secrets."

Dawn was just threatening to break now, the light peering in through the gaps in the drawn curtains, casting a warm glow through the hotel room. Through those gaps Emily could spot the Flatiron Building, just across the road - the suite they were in had cost a month's salary, but Ali said they deserved the best for their special day.

The wedding had gone off without a hitch, an alien concept to Emily and Ali both after so many years of being manipulated and scared of what lay around the corner. Emily's mom and Ali's dad had drunkenly held each other as they cried; Spencer had given a beautiful speech that had made Emily laugh so hard she still had a cramp. The flowers alone had cost a fortune, and tomorrow Emily was sure she would cringe when their parents presented them with their half of the bill, but for Ali, it was all worth it. Anything to see that beautiful smile.

Ali, of course, was the star, in her custom Vera Wang gown that she had saved a year for, which lay crumpled now in the corner. Emily had gone for a much more understated white pantsuit, leaving her hair to fall around her shoulders. Ali's bun had taken an hour to perfect, but it was now crushed and crooked, her makeup faded and smeared.

Emily had thought Ali looked like an angel as she walked down the aisle, but her, here, lit by the glow of dawn, was the definition of beautiful.

Ali stirred, made a little groaning noise before opening her eyes. "That's _really_ what you're thinking about? Right now?"

She had a point - Emily and Ali had just finished the time-honoured tradition of wedding night (morning?) sex, which had left them both drained but elated. It was a struggle finding time to have sex with twins to worry about, but now they had a glorious week in New York City to simply revel in each other - and after that, a week in Hawaii, a gift from Spencer, Aria and Hanna.

Emily chuckled, a little self-consciously, and brushed her dark hair away from her face. "Yeah, I know. I just...after everything with A..." Her heart lurched as she remembered Alex's cruel smile, her cold eyes - Emily hadn't been told where she was being held now. It couldn't be far enough away, especially from the girls.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ali rises, the sheets falling away and exposing her body. There's a flash of anger in her eyes that gives Emily pause, but there's hurt there, too. Emily forgets sometimes how she distrusted Alison - it seems ridiculous to her now.

Emily sighs softly, readjusts herself to face Ali totally. Their eyes meet, brown on impossibly blue, and for a moment Emily feels like she's falling all over again. "We're married now, Ali. And I want you to know that you can trust me with anything, and I'll do the same for you."

The hurt and anger disappear almost instantaneously, replaced with a warm, gentle smile mostly reserved for Lily and Grace, a soft laugh. "I love you too, Em. Always."

Emily's matching smile presses to Ali's in a deep kiss, just as the sun's rays finally stream through. Life, she thinks, cannot possibly get any sweeter.

 

* * *

 

 

The trip had taken far too long, even though Emily's watch staunchly said it was only a four hour flight. She rolled her shoulders (her bad one still stiff, even after all these years) and wished desperately she could close her eyes as they drove away from SeaTac airport. It was a dull day, overcast with a storm threatening the horizon. When she woke up Ali surely would say something about some metaphor from some old book that she loved, maybe how rain was supposed to be lucky. She'd get used to it, Emily knew. It wasn't like Rosewood had the best weather.

She was just worried about the girls.

"I just don't get it, Emmy," Grace grumbled, staring out the window. Her arms were crossed over her Rosewood soccer hoodie, a frown on her face. Truly, she hadn't stopped complaining about the move for months, ever since February, when Emily was offered the athletics department supervisor position at West Seattle High - about the time, too, that she dropped the 'Mama' part and just started calling her Emmy. It had annoyed Emily before. Now it only made her quirk an eyebrow in the rear view mirror. "You liked your job back in Rosewood. What's so special about _Seattle_?" She spat it more than said it, like it left a bad taste in her mouth.

Emily opened her mouth to respond, the same rote answer she always gave, but Lily looked up from her beaten-up copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to speak first. "Mama Em was stuck as swim coach at Rosewood High for like, thirty years, Grace. And Mama Ali is taking over the English department here. And West Seattle gets higher SAT scores every year than Rosewood does. So get over it."

"Your sister is entitled to her feelings, Lily," Ali mumbled, her eyes opening for just a moment before screwing shut again. Lily rolled her eyes but made sure to shoot Grace a look that dripped with derision. Grace countered with a disgusted ' _ugh_ ' and turned back to look out the window.

Truly, Grace and Lily couldn't be more different - Emily sometimes wondered if they really were fraternal twins after all, that maybe there'd been some mistake. Both of them looked like Emily ( _thank God for small favours,_ Emily'd thought in the hospital as she saw her daughters for the first time) but she'd thought that, maybe somehow, the little girls she and Ali used to dress up in matching outfits would stay the same forever.

They had decidedly not. Grace had inherited Emily's love of sports but had stayed far away from the pool, perhaps out of a desire to cut the cord. She'd excelled in soccer, though, and was easily the best on even the varsity team. She'd been popular back in Rosewood - not Ali levels of popular, not the untouchable kind, but it was rare for her to spend a Saturday night under her own roof. Lily, on the other hand, was far more academically inclined than Emily had ever been; maybe she'd absorbed some of Ali's intelligence in utero? Either way, she'd always gotten straight As, and Emily had known the move would be far easier on her - her only close friend, Thomas, had been accepted for early entry to Princeton and had left Rosewood at the start of summer to get set up in his new home.

Still, as they drove through the streets of Seattle in the car that reeked of newness, Emily had to wonder if this had truly been the best choice for her family.

She kept a brave smile on as they pulled in to the driveway of their new home in North Admiral. It was the first time Emily was seeing it, too - Ali had flown up here two weeks before to sign the papers, and a week before to oversee the delivery of their furniture. From the pictures Emily had been expecting a colonial - it was decidedly more modern than her anticipations, spanning over a much wider block than their neighbour's homes. The driveway was peppered with cherry and oak trees, and something about it reminded Emily immediately of the house Ali had grown up in, huge and stately and, in her opinion, over-the-top.

_Be brave. For the girls._

"Here we are, ladies," Emily chirped as she turned off the car and opened the door, finally rousing Ali from her slumber. The move had been rough on Ali too, and it showed with lines on her face that Emily had never seen before. Emily's fortieth birthday was rapidly approaching, true, but Ali looked like she'd aged five years overnight.

Still, the warm smile on her face made Emily's heart lurch, the same as it did twenty-five years ago.

Ali turned back to the girls, one hand smoothing down the flyaway strands of her hair. "I've set up your rooms, girls. If you want to change anything, let me know okay? We can do it..." The 'together' trailed off as Grace and Lily shut the front door behind themselves, Lily with her nose still stuck in her book and Grace with two huge duffel bags and her ever-present frown. Ali _hmmf_ ed, a frown growing on her own lips, but it disappeared as Emily caught her hand.

"It's gorgeous, Ali. Just like you. We can really make this happen," Emily grinned at her wife until Ali's slow smile began to tug at the corners of her lips. God, she loved that smile. It was like sunshine.

Ali opened her mouth to say something but clicked her teeth shut as Nirvana came blasting out of one of the upstairs rooms. Her smile turned wicked in an instant. "So, looks like Grace is settling in. Lily will be stuck in that book for hours..."

"Oh?" Emily purred, her free hand coming up to weave its merry way through Ali's hair. "You have something on your mind, Mrs Fields?"

"I do, Mrs DiLaurentis," Ali growled straight back. Immediately a shot of heat travelled down Emily's body to settle between her legs. "Let's go christen our new home, shall we?"

Emily didn't need much convincing - suddenly she felt more awake than she had in days. With a burst of giddy energy she pulled Ali through the front door, up the two flights of stairs to the master bedroom. It was decorated in true Ali style - pristine Egyptian cotton sheets on the king-size bed, a plush white carpet that almost immediately began to warm Emily's feet as she hurriedly pulled off her shoes, a huge bay window looking out over the water only a few blocks away. It was truly stunning.

"Babe, how much did we end up paying for this house?" Emily asked as she unbuttoned her blouse, exposing her dark blue bra and her toned body.

"A little over half the market value. It was a deceased estate," Ali answered breathlessly, shedding her pale yellow sundress. She wasn't wearing a bra - Emily gathered Ali in her arms and began pressing kisses down her breastbone, eliciting a hiss from Ali. Emily's squeak of mild shock brought a grin on to Ali's face. "Come on, you can't possibly believe in ghosts, babe. She didn't even die inside the house."

"As sexy as thinking about the dead owner of this house is, maybe we should change the subject." Emily captured one of Ali's rapidly hardening nipples in her mouth, forcing Ali to bite down on her own hand to keep from groaning too loudly. The last thing they wanted was Grace or Lily barging in again.

Sex between Ali and Emily was practised and, out of necessity, quick. After fifteen years of being together they knew each other's bodies better than their own- Emily wasted no time shedding the rest of her clothes, flopping back on the bed unceremoniously to allow Ali full access to her body. Ali took the offer immediately, the silk underwear she still had on growing more and more damp by the minute as she pressed gentle kisses to Emily's lips, her right hand sliding softly down Emily's chest and firm stomach to come to rest at the triangle of soft, slick skin between Emily's legs. Ali's fingers read Emily like a book, immediately pressing on to her aching clit. Emily's back arched at the sudden contact of Ali's icy fingertips, a soft keening moan escaping her throat.

"More, more...I need _more_ , Ali," Emily groaned, then gasped as Ali happily obliged, pushing two fingers deep inside her. It wasn't long before Ali's hand was joined by her mouth, hot and agonisingly soft, just the way Emily liked it.

The pace began to quicken, Ali's breathing sharpening against Emily's body as she bucked and writhed beneath her. Ali could play Emily like a fiddle - knew the pitches and breathlessness of the moans that indicated if she was close, if it was just a little too much, not enough. Even with Emily biting down hard enough to leave welts on her hand Ali could tell as her stomach tensed that she was impossibly wound, her body just on the edge of release.

Emily came with both her and Ali's free hand over her mouth, muffling her ecstatic cries. Ali released her, slowly pulling her fingers out, then made a new trail of gentle kisses up Emily's torso to capture her lips.

"I love you," Ali whispered in to Emily's mouth. Before Emily could reply the two heard a loud  _bang_ and a particularly angsty groan coming up the stairs.

"Moms! We have no food!" Grace called up, sounding every bit as frustrated as Emily felt.

Alison peeled herself off of Emily with an annoyed grunt of her own, rolling her eyes in the way that only she could as she pulled on her sundress.

"I'll take Grace to the store. I think I saw one a few blocks back." Slipping back in to mom mode was effortless, the electricity that was there only a few seconds before quenched. That didn't stop Emily from kissing the back of Ali's neck as she shrugged her blouse back on. "I'm not done with you, though."

Ali hummed appreciatively, turning to watch her beautiful wife leave.

 

* * *

 

Breakfast was a subdued affair. Lily and Alison were still asleep; Ali would drive them both in at 8:30, long after morning practice was over. It was a well-worn tradition for Grace and Emily to wake up at five AM, to share toast and coffee and a few jokes.

Grace was still as silent as ever, preferring to text her friends back in Rosewood than look up as Emily passed her two slices of toast and a big plate of scrambled eggs. She did at grunt appreciatively as Emily slid over her coffee - a small step but a far sight from the sullen silence Emily had gotten over the previous twelve hours.

"Are you excited for your first practice?" Emily tried, her voice sounding smaller than she intended. Grace stopped texting for a moment to stare at her mother pointedly, her brown eyes the exact same shade as Emily's, before picking up a piece of toast and biting in to it with as much derision as she could muster.

On the twins' thirteenth birthday Ali's dad had jokingly warned Emily that the teen years were worse than the terrible twos. Emily wasn't so sure that he had been joking now.

The rest of breakfast wasn't much better, nor was the drive in to West Seattle High. Grace did at least stop texting, instead choosing to stare pointedly out the window as Emily drove. The clouds from yesterday had dissipated, and now the early morning sun was just beginning to peek out over the horizon, casting everything in a gentle yellow glow.

At a red light Emily turned to face Grace, and she had to stop herself from reaching out to touch her daughter's dark, curly hair. Even as a baby Grace's hair had been thick and grown in tight ringlets; it looked just as soft now as it had then. A pang of sadness ripped through her, but then the car behind them honked and the moment was over.

Grace practically leapt from the car as Emily pulled in to her parking spot, barely even giving Emily time to say goodbye. She sighed, chewing on her lip as she watched Grace walk away, then slid out of the driver's seat with her bag in tow.

Even at 5:45AM there was movement in the school. Grace's soccer team were gathering on the pitch, but there would still be time before the swimmers started coming in. Emily followed the smell of chlorine to the pool, then to her little office. Coach offices were all pretty similar - messy but organised, the smell of old gym equipment and pool water permeating everything. Emily's predecessor had left an oil burner on the desk; she smiled a little, making a mental note to get something to put in it. Lavender, maybe. Something relaxing.

Emily pulled her hair in to a ponytail and began to unpack her things, starting with a photo of Grace and Lily as newborns, being held in Ali's dad's arms; another of Emily and Ali cutting the cake at their wedding. Already the little office started to feel a bit more like home.

Practice that morning went well; the junior varsity team had a clear front runner in Ava Goldstein, who was the fastest by a full five seconds but had an abrasive attitude that would likely get really old, really fast. One of the other girls, Justine or Josephine, had amazing stamina but stayed off to the side, clearly uncomfortable being around others. Emily made a mental note to keep an eye on her.

Thankfully the teacher's lounge was a short walk from the pool - Emily needed coffee something chronic. She could hear the teachers from down the hall, laughing over some joke. A tiny ball of anxiety began to bloom in her stomach as she clasped the door handle, a sudden childish fear of rejection washing over her. It was gone as soon as it started, though, and she plastered a smile on her face and pushed open the door.

There were four teachers in the room; two on a threadbare couch, one reading a newspaper and one leafing through a file; one sat by the window, sipping what looked like tea; the last was by the kitchenette, fiddling with the coffee maker and swearing under her breath. She was the only one who looked up when Emily walked in, a welcoming smile replaced with a look of shock in one fluid motion.

It took Emily a little longer to register who this person was; she was older of course, and her hair was straighter now, her cheekbones a little more pronounced, but Emily could recognise those big brown eyes anywhere.

"Paige?"


End file.
